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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Changing the World One Blogger At A Time

Each one of us has this passion inside of us. That passion might just be a small kindle of a flame ready to be ignited, while others of us already have a fire that has spread to our limbs gracefully moving us to act. This passion comes in so many forms, each making up a beautiful tapestry ready to cover this world in grace and love.

For me, my passion is children. I know I've been created to love children and love them into effective people in this world. This is just what I've been built to do. Every fiber in my being desires this! Recently, with the birth of my daughter, I realized just how innocent babies are. Their entire existence depends on another. So this challenged me.

After my husband and I left the Ranch, we knew that we couldn't just abandon our passion even though we were in a different place in our lives. So we created something called a Tot Pack.

A Tot Pack is just a pack filled with baby items (although we have a children's one as well). It's that simple. We've seen many families in our grocery stores, community centers, neighborhoods, and even waiting at the city bus stop with infants, and many times these families seem to be without. So with no questions asked, we decided to put together these packs and donate them to families with infants.

So, I'm challenging this blog world... lets get together and spread love in the form of these Tot Packs. I'm not asking for donations. I'm asking you, to put together a Tot Pack of your own and graciously give it to a baby in need and here's how:

1. Put together a Tot Pack of your own (instructions below)

2. Find a baby in need, whether in the home next door, a family walking out of the grocery store, a mom waiting at a bus stop or find families with babies by asking your local elementary schools, community centers, pregnancy centers, hospitals, or city public department.

3. Donate your Tot Pack with no strings attached.

4. Blog about your experience to spread this act to your friends, family, and blog readers (also, if you'd like your experience to be share on From Here to Eternity {and I would love to have it shared here}, email your experience to jhen.stark@gmail.com and I'll post it for my readers to read).

So what'a a Tot Pack?

For under $50 you can put a similar Infant Tot Pack together. For this pack we purchased for 99cents a large reusable tote bag from Bed Bath and Beyond and filled it with these items:

If you'd like to create a Tot Pack for an older child, purchase a new "First day of School Outfit" with some awesome school supplies (many schools put together lists of items needed). Sometimes, schools will take donations and give it to a family privately listed on the school's list of families in need. There's nothing quite like a brand new "First Day of School" outfit for a child!!!

So, lets join together around this blog world and make a difference!

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

What a beautiful idea!! I can't wait to make some of my own. I think that I will drop some off at Children and Youth Services next time I take our foster daughter for a visit. Thanks for the inspiration!

Walgreen's has all sorts of crazy back to school sales like free Crayola markers with mail in rebate so it would be pretty inexpensive to make a ton of back to school kits right now too! (markers, glue sticks, paper, pencils, ect.)